- Newcastle offer Sandro Tonali leadership role
- Magpies face a battle to keep Italian this summer
- Why the offer might convince Tonali to stay
Newcastle United face an ongoing battle to keep their stars at the club this summer, especially after the precedent set by Anthony Gordon’s move to Barcelona.
Sandro Tonali is one of those with speculation swirling around his future, and reports suggest a move away from Tyneside could be on the cards this summer.
Those reports are yet to be substantiated by Tonali or his camp, although there were some worrying murmurings earlier in the season that have since been shut down.
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone involved with the club to see all of the noise around their Italian maestro. But, as the Chronicle reported, there is a suggestion that the Magpies have already started putting plans in place to try and entice Tonali to stick around for at least another season.
Newcastle lose leadership figures
The Magpies have faced some rather damning departures following the close of the season, especially in the leadership department.
The influential Kieran Trippier has now signed for Championship outfit Wolves upon the expiry of his Newcastle contract.
John Ruddy has also left the club for the same reason and is now free to explore his options as a free agent.
Even Jamaal Lascelles, who had seen the end to his Toon career marred by injury, left the club and joined Leicester City.
Those departures together marked the loss of three figures integral to Howe’s leadership group and now mean that Newcastle United need to find a new vice captain and have a big restructure of the leadership group as next season approaches.
Tonali given more responsibility
Losing all of those players, and of course, the lack of things left to play for, meant that Eddie Howe spent the back end of the season planning and looking ahead to the next campaign.
That most notably came in the form of leaving Anthony Gordon on the bench in preparation for his imminent departure. But it also meant trying a few new things captain-wise.
With Bruno Guimaraes still injured, it marked the perfect opportunity for Howe to give someone else a go with the armband and show faith in someone new.
The man he chose to entrust was Sandro Tonali. It came as a shock to some, given the Italian was being linked with a move away at a rapidly multiplying rate, but it was a clear sign of how much the manager both trusts Tonali and wants to keep him at the club going forward.
The leadership offer
With that in mind, the news today that Newcastle have offered Sandro Tonali a place in the leadership group going forward is clearly a testament to the respect he has earned behind the scenes.
Not only that, but it seems the club has identified it as a possible way of convincing Tonali to stay at the club, making him a more senior member of the squad and positioning him as a top star – if that wasn’t apparent already.
Of course, the issue still remains that, without UEFA Champions League or any sort of European football as a factor, the clubs who will be sniffing around Tonali this summer are much more equipped to attract a player of his calibre.
But if Newcastle can plant the idea that Tonali has the chance to become somewhat of a club legend if he continues his journey on Tyneside, they may just be able to keep him around next season – and the leadership offer looks like it has exactly that in mind.
